Months in the Making: ESPN’s Production Team Preps Hundreds of Player Highlights for NFL Draft
Player highlight packages are annually one of the most important elements of the three days of NFL Draft coverage (April 28-30). A team of ESPN producers, production assistants, content associates and editors literally works for months to prepare these.
In all, the ESPN team has prepped over 520 highlight packages for the 2022 NFL Draft. That’s more than 1,500 telestrated plays!
NFL Live’s Laura Rutledge narrates the video above, which describes the process of creating these player packages – and puts a spotlight on the team of unsung heroes who make it all happen.
Editors Note: Spencer Jackson and Bill Hofheimer produced the video above; featured image design by Amanda Brooks
ESPN Production Staff Credits
ESPN Player Highlight Packages
- Adam Bauer – Associate Producer II
- Desmond Bernal – Production Assistant
- Ikeem Boyd – Associate Producer I
- Matt Brooks – Senior Associate Producer
- Kaila Burns-Heffner – Associate Producer I
- Alex Chen – Content Associate
- Jeremy Drummond – Associate Producer I
- Kayvon Ezami – Production Assistant
- Ryan Hoff – Associate Producer
- Mike Logan – Production Assistant
- Eric Robinson – Production Assistant
- Lou Russo – Remote Telestration Producer
- Eric Sellers – Content Associate
- Kyle Taylor – Production Assistant
- Sania Blu White – Production Assistant
- Eric Feinstein – Associate Producer I
Editors
- Lauren Roberts – Libero Editor
- Mike Kataja – Libero Editor
- Dan Marques – Libero Editor
- Jerome Foster – Libero Editor
- Doug Colby – Libero Editor
- Bryon Brelsford – Libero Editor
- Beth Ross – Libero Editor
- Nick Mainville – Quantel Editor
- Andrew Wells – Quantel Editor
- Kyle Curran – Quantel Editor
- Carlos Rivera – Quantel Editor
- Zach Barrette – Quantel Editor
- Lauren Bernstein – Quantel Editor
- Vitor Britto – Quantel Editor
ABC Player Highlight Packages
- Chris Brennan – Associate Producer
- Alyssa Chrisope – Associate Producer
- Quinton Zielke – Production Assistant
- Tiara Rose – Production Assistant
- Kristen Payne – Production Assistant
- Tyler Pickle – Production Assistant
- Kyle Taylor – Production Assistant
- Christine Taylor – Production Assistant
- Matt Reed – Production Assistant
Editors
- Beth Ross – Quantel Editor
- Justin Conforti – Quantel Editor
- Danielle Meunier – Quantel Editor
- Erik Swanson – Quantel Editor
- Juandiego Gamarra-Andaluz – Quantel Editor
- John Hanlon – Quantel Editor
- Tom Brushway – Quantel Editor
- Byron Ellis – Quantel Editor
- Adam Shepherd – Quantel Editor
- Krystle Padilla – Quantel Editor
- Alex Muniz-Torres – Quantel Editor
- Dan Fiedler – Libero Editor
- Assunta D’Amico – Libero Editor
- Brian Clark – Libero Editor
- Ryan Humble – Libero Editor
- Shae Sau – Libero Editor
- Maegan Norris – Libero Editor
- Babacar Diop – Libero Editor
Of the 520 player highlight packages that ESPN has prepped for this year’s NFL Draft, senior associate producer Matt Brooks notes a couple of the more memorable ones – and how the production team effectively used social media to track down the video clips they needed:
- Gregory Junior (Ouachita Baptist) is from a small, Division II school. Production assistant Mike Logan, who had the highlight, hadn’t heard back from school, so he DM’d Junior, who provided some highlights. Said Brooks: “That’s definitely one positive thing about social media – being able to directly contact the player. I don’t think we’ve done that before.”
- Marcel Dabo (Germany) has been called the “hidden gem” of this year’s draft. His highlight was just added last week. Added Brooks: “Dabo played in the European League of Football for the Stuttgart Surge, and we heard he tested really well at the Arizona State Pro Day.” Associate producer Ikeem Boyd found some highlights on Dabo’s Instagram and associate producer Ryan Hoff also reached out to the team to get some video from them.
